Mobile communication devices such as mobile phones have evolved from relatively simple voice-only radio devices to sophisticated multimedia devices. Mobile phones now frequently include numerous features such as Internet browsers, cameras, electronic calendars, and multi-media players. Operating such features often requires complex software applications, called firmware, to reside on a mobile communication device.
Maintaining and updating firmware on mobile communication devices can be a difficult process. Conventional software applications, such as those residing on personal computers, are frequently able to schedule automatic software updates using the Internet, and the updates thus can be transparent and convenient for computer users. However, firmware updates for mobile communication devices have often required manufacturer recalls of devices, or hard wiring of the devices to the Internet at a service facility, both of which can be very inconvenient for device users and expensive for mobile service providers.
Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) is a technology that enables device manufacturers and/or service providers to update a mobile device's firmware using wireless communications. Wireless provisioning of firmware using FOTA techniques has many advantages including improved time to market, faster deployment of security patches and anti-virus updates, reduced recall and service costs, faster adoption of new applications, and improved customer satisfaction.
In conjunction with FOTA provisioning, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) provisioning enables mobile devices to be provisioned over the air with connectivity and application access information. Standards such as the Open Mobile Alliance Client Provisioning (OMACP) standards define how initial configuration parameters can be delivered to a WAP mobile device from a bootstrap server when the device first connects to a network. The standards enable provisioning documents such as binary eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents to be delivered to a mobile device.
However, WAP provisioning generally requires numerous new hardware elements to be installed in a network, requires assistance from various client side applications, and cannot be easily launched when a device is operating in a foreign network.
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